Which keywords should I try ranking for?

[sixty6]

All forums need SEO and SERP's to get more traffic. But I am so confused on which keywords I should try ranking for. My forum has a decent amount of posts, but there doesn't seem to be a specific keyword that the audience would be interested in searching in....

Take a look at the forum:
http://forums.arcadewebmasters.com/

It is targeted towards the arcade script industry, so which keywords would I go for?

[John Scott]

Look at the content and go from there. The most targeted keywords will usually be found in the content itself.

[sixty6]

Arcade Promotion
Arcade Scripts

All I can think off at the moment...

[vangogh]

You should be able to rainstorm a lot more than that.

Try Overture and the Google AdWords keyword tool. In fact search for 'keyword tool' and I'm sure the results will be filled with sites.

You've got 8 categories on the forum starting with Arcade, so we're already up to 8 keyphrases built around the single word arcade. I went into the arcade content forum and saw links for game talk and video talk. I'd suggest that just about every keyphrase you find with the word arcade you could replace arcade with either video or game or even both.

In truth I would think a forum is going to build it's own content and the content is what will end up determining the keywords. You can control it somewhat with the words you use to set up the forum categories and even by starting your own posts, but the majority of the content will be created by people not thinking about keywords at all.

Just encourage the forum to grow and get links pointing to it.

[googlesuccess]

You also need to analyze your competitors' websites. You need to see their source code and see which keywords they are targeting.

[Batch]

Doing Keyword analysis

1) Which business you would like to do.
2) What service you would like to provide to your customer.
3) Who are your targeted customers or visitors?
4) Expected information your visitors may search for?
5) Which information can make them satisfied?
6) Which particular word can be the one word definition for the above mentioned two questions?
7) Now use inventory.overture.com or word tracker.
Search the specific keyword in yahoo, or in Google suggest lab you will get few mores very competitive keywords. That will also help you to targeting more specific keywords.
9) Do some competitor analysis and try to find out which keywords they are using and why, that will also be a big help for you.
10) Last but not the least, use search engines to get your query cleared.

Hope these will help you.

Thanks.

[sixty6]

Overture keeps timing out for me - pretty annoying...

GoogleSuccess - My competitor is selling his forums saying he isn't reaping enough money from it.. He wasn't much competition though...

Batch nice suggestion but I still can't come up with anything...Best choice would be trying to rank for the name of the arcade scripts themself?

[googlesuccess]

Originally Posted by sixty6

My competitor is selling his forums saying he isn't reaping enough money from it.. He wasn't much competition though...

You are not looking beyond your domain of 'arcade scripts', that's why you can see only few competitors. Try looking at related fields like game scripts or flash game scripts

You also need to qualify your keywords for refiniting your targets. For example longer keyoword phrases such as

php arcade scripts, arcade flash scripts, arcade movie scripts, flash game script, flash game arcad script, game script forum, arcade forum, arcade script forum, arcade bbs, webmaster games script, war game script, blackjack arcade script, free game scripts etc ... some such keywords can get targetted traffic to your site.

[vangogh]

Listen to googlesuccess. Try not to get limited by only targeting the word 'arcade.' All of the above keyword suggestions are good.

[sixty6]

Alright I'll give it a shot today!

[UBF]

well, according to wordtracker these phrases (with arcade) have KEIs of more than 10:

aviation arcade games
arcade game for play online
where do i find good arcade games
tank arcade games
free arcade games on the internet
free download arcade game
arcade buy dance dance revolution
ct arcades
video arcade rentals in atlanta
worms arcade game
free downloadable arcade games
arcade games for free to play online
free internet arcade games
basketball arcade games
arcade dart games
air hockey arcade
arcade darts

[NothingButNet]

Have you considered using tools like nichebot and keyworddiscovery to determine phrase sequence and search percentage with fulfillment? You might find an underserved niche area.

[Big Bill]

You shouldn't try for specific serps. Just go with the flow and accept what your forum users naturally use.

BB

[vistadivine.com]

Do some keyword research to find the best keywords for your forums, try to find the keywords that are decently searched but are also less competitive.

[ninjashoes]

get signed up with google webmaster I think it is and experiment with different combinations, you will be able to see what phases people are using to find and click through

[sixty6]

Most of the keywords are targetted towards kids = none arcade webmasters

Anyway I sold the website, so I won't need to find keywords on this anymore